Black is White, Hedges are Bets, and Your Money is Mine, Zeus Yiamouyiannis

"As we witness the riotous dissolution of corrupted capitalism, we need not wait for the history books to identify the mile markers of self-destruction. If we are to rebuild capitalism, even as it is tearing itself down, then we will need to become street-smart detectives in analyzing the current economic murder-suicide in progress."

"1) Hedges for big banks have evolved into gambling vehicles that increase risk rather than reduce risk.

"2) Guaranteed savings deposits in those same big banks are being used as fodder in the high-risk investment casinos of global finance. There are no longer effective firewalls or truly secure funds."

You know, when I was writing my thesis on family violence, my advisors counselled me to use "discipline" instead of "abuse". Such a distortion only makes matters worse. If a parent did to Queen Elizabeth what parents do to their children, they would be charged with a crime. Why should we soften the language to accommodate those who do not want to face facts?

Joan, you're asking others to remedy a serious problem, and you're asking them to do it without pay.

Wall Street probably evolved from Lloyds of London: a few people with a lot of money who were willing to bet it on the efforts of others. Their gambling became the insurance business.

When you buy life insurance, you bet that you will die and they bet that you will live. When you win the bet you made, they pay your next of kin. When you lose the bet you made, you pay them to stay in the "game".

When you buy automobile insurance, you bet that you will have an accident in which you damage your car and perhaps harm others. They bet that you won't. When you win the bet you made, they pay to repair your car and/or pay the losses others suffered. When you lose the bet you made, you pay them to stay in the "game".

Whoever started what became Wall Street had money to loan people who wanted to start businesses. Banks didn't want to risk their depositors' money so these people with money loaned it.

Suppose I want to start a business and need money to buy raw materials, equipment and hire employees--including myself. Betting that I will succeed, I write a plan and show it to people with money. Suppose they think it will earn money. They will buy shares of stock; I get the money and start the business. When I have more money coming in than I'm spending, I can repay the loan. I can buy the stockholders' shares, or I can pay them interest and use the rest of the profits to grow my business. The betting differs; I and my investors are betting my business will succeed.

The corruption starts when I or my investors give money to elect people to legislative bodies, and the winners pass laws that help me or my investors. My customers and/or the taxpayers lose a game they don't know they are playing.

Of course I am asking people to remedy a problem and to do so without pay! Since when are we motivated to be decent and compassionate because of pay?

Insurance is a valuable and necessary instrument to protect one against forces beyond control. To pay insurance for home fires and car accidents spreads the risk, while making it possible for a person to invest in such high cost and costly products. It is as necessary as our daily bread, and we budget for it, if we are wise, or can self-insure.

Lloyds of London, Wall Street, banking and labor unions are valuable institutions, IF a person can trust them to manage money for the benefit of all, not only for the wealthy who become wealthy by stealing other peoples’ money.

When these institutions view money as pots of cash to be gambled, then they can only result in distrust, failure of the systems and create a weaker, angrier, more destructive society. This monetary crisis did not happen by accident, it was created. The consequences will not be pretty.

Banks want to loan money to people to empower them to flourish. They don’t want failed loans, at least not the wise ones. My tiny village had a bank that loaned money to farmers. It was a family-owned bank and their success depended on success of farmers. That bank did not go bankrupt in the 1930’s because of failure of farmer to grow and harvest and truck grain to markets. The bank and the farmers failed because the underlying system failed in its fiduciary role of creating stability and confidence in government for the value of money.

I know someone who owned a tractor business. He was able to buy the machines for cash and resell them to farmers. Banks were willing to loan to farmers for such a purchaseand my friend was able to thrive. After the economic downturn, banks wouldn’t loan to farmers and farmers couldn’t purchase tractors. So, he went out of business. What if the markets had been stable, banks had been secured with real money instead of fiat money?

Stores closures continue to this day. They stand empty, producing no goods and services. No money is coming inand the only jobs available are low wage jobs. Highly trained, skilled mechanics, technical people, have no work because the purchasing portion of our economy shrinks.

Yes, some have money for fine homes, cars, vacations, and they have no worries about paying for luxury. What about the buying middle class? What are they able to buy? They could consume far more than the One%. Watch the relative size of the middle class to the One% and you see where we are headed.

If you want to start a business, look to see if you have any potential buyers of your product. If you do, the bank will be the first to recognize the ability to repay loans and can keep the machinery of markets rolling. If not, everything slows way down, some benefit, some fail, many suffer.

Legislators, bought by big money to benefit big money, can only result in failure. Do you think people in big houses and driving big cars feel safer when there is a teaming mass of people with torches ready and willing and able to set fire to the whole enterprise?

If, for no other reason than enlightened self-interest, the banks, financiers, investors, stockholders, legislative bodies and labor unions build institutions worthy of trust and confidence.

Yes, I am asking people to remedy a problem and to do so without pay! When we are motivated by enlightened self-interest, and tap into our decent and compassionate nature, owners of labor and owners of capital benefit, society benefits, the Earth benefits, especially, if we can put an end to these endless wars.

The only way Earth will sustain life is if humans can learn to live within the means of Earth’s supply and if Homo sapiens can learn to live incommunity on Earth.